Dyeing, Third Attempt

My mother made me promise I would teach her how to dye yarn.  So when my family visited recently, we spent an evening with messy hands dyeing yarn in the kitchen.  The whole house smelled pleasantly fruity!

After skeining out the yarn on the backs of two chairs, we presoaked the yarn in water and vinegar the night before.  I used 2/3 cup of vinegar for each 100 g of yarn, and just enough water to cover the yarn.

When we’re ready to start, we first lay out pieces of plastic wrap in an oval or circle big enough to lay the yarn on.  This catches drips and is what we wrap the yarn in to heat it.  Then we removed the yarn from the vinegar soak, squeezing out enough of the moisture so that it doesn’t drip, but not so much that it’s very dry.

Next we mix our dyes!  This is the fun part.  We used Kool-Aid, Wilton’s Icing Dyes and Food Coloring.  About a quart of water is enough for 100 g of yarn, so if we’re using two colors I try to divide the quart of water between the colors.  It’s just a rule of thumb.  The Wilton’s paste has to be mixed in boiling water or it won’t dissolve, but the other colors can be mixed in warm or even cool water (though I find the Kool-Aid dissolves better if the water is warm).  As I mix, I put little drops of the mixture on a white paper towel to see about what color it will be once it’s on the yarn.  You could even cut small lengths of yarn to test dye if you wanted to be sure of the color.

Then it’s time to dye!  We decide where we want the colors and pour a small amount of dye at a time on the yarn.  Then we “smoosh” it to make sure the dye saturates all the yarn, and continue until we’ve got the results we wanted.

Dyeing in progress!

We didn’t use gloves, so our fingers and fingernails turned funny colors.

The yarn fully dyed and ready to be heated and set.

Then we wrap the plastic wrap as tightly as possible around the yarn.  You can use different methods of heating, such as placing on a baking sheet, covering with foil and placing in the oven.  We set the skein in a glass baking dish and microwaved for two minutes, let it sit for two minutes, the microwaved for two more.  If the water you can see through the plastic wrap is still colored, you can microwave for more two-minute segments.  Let the yarn sit until it has cooled to room temperature.

My mom’s citrus-y yarn cooling.

Once the yarn has cooled, we soak it in water the same temperature as the yarn.  Soak until the water and yarn have completely cooled off, then squeeze as much of the moisture out as possible and hang to dry.  We use a hanger in the shower.

After drying overnight, it’s time to wind into a ball!

My daughter’s yarn, dyed with various Kool-Aid colors.

My fall-colored yarn, dyed with Wilton’s Icing Pastes.